Tan Tiang Po, Luitenant der Chinezen (1846 – 1912), also spelled Tan Tjeng Po, was a colonial
Chinese-Indonesian
Chinese Indonesians ( id, Orang Tionghoa Indonesia) and colloquially Chindo or just Tionghoa are Indonesians whose ancestors arrived from China at some stage in the last eight centuries.
Chinese people and their Indonesian descendants have l ...
bureaucrat, landowner, philanthropist and the penultimate ''
Landheer In the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia), a Landheer (Dutch for 'landlord'; plural, Landheeren) was the lord or owner of a ''particuliere landerij'', a private domain in a feudal system of land tenure used in parts of the colony. Dutch jurists des ...
'' (landlord) of the domain (''
particuliere land'') of
Batoe-Tjepper in the
Dutch East Indies
The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies ( nl, Nederlands(ch)-Indië; ), was a Dutch colony consisting of what is now Indonesia. It was formed from the nationalised trading posts of the Dutch East India Company, which ...
.
Background and family
Born in 1846 in
Batavia
Batavia may refer to:
Historical places
* Batavia (region), a land inhabited by the Batavian people during the Roman Empire, today part of the Netherlands
* Batavia, Dutch East Indies, present-day Jakarta, the former capital of the Dutch East In ...
(now
Jakarta
Jakarta (; , bew, Jakarte), officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta ( id, Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta) is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Lying on the northwest coast of Java, the world's most populous island, Jakarta ...
), Tan hailed from the '
Cabang Atas
The Cabang Atas (''Van Ophuijsen Spelling System'': Tjabang Atas) — literally 'highest branch' in Indonesian language, Indonesian — was the traditional Chinese establishment or gentry of Dutch East Indies, colonial Indonesia. They were the fa ...
' or the Chinese gentry of colonial Indonesia on both sides of his family.
His father, the magnate
Tan Kang Soeij (1827 – 1867), served as ''
Luitenant der Chinezen'' of
Weltevreden and sat on the
Chinese Council (Kong Koan) of Batavia from 1860 to 1866.
The Chinese officership was a prestigious bureaucratic appointment in the Dutch colonial government with administrative authority over the colony's ethnic Chinese subjects.
Through his father, Tan was a grandson of the tycoon and ''
pacht
The institution of the ''pacht'' or ''pacht-stelsel'' (revenue farm, pl. ''pachten'') was a system of tax farming in the Dutch Republic. In this system tax is not collected by the government, but by a private individual who has leased the right to ...
er'' (revenue farmer) Tan Leng (1801 – 1851), part of the powerful
Ngo Ho Tjiang Kongsi.
Tan was also a half-nephew and near contemporary of
Tan Kang Ie, ''Luitenant der Chinezen'' of
Bekasi
Bekasi (, su, ) is a city in West Java, Indonesia, located on the eastern border of Jakarta.the city of planet Bekasi is his nickname.It serves as a commuter city within the Jakarta metropolitan area. According to the 2020 Census by Statistics ...
(1847 – 1908).
Through his mother, Tjie Tjan Nio, Tan was a grandson of the bureaucrat
Tjie Kim Louw, ''Luitenant-Boedelmeester der Chinezen'' (1801 – 1883), who sat on the ''college van Boedelmeesters'' (board of state trustees) and acted as Secretary of the Chinese Council.
Around the mid-1860s at Batoe-Tjepper, Tan married Lim Hong Nio, daughter of the administrator of Ngo Ho Tjiang,
Lim Soe Keng Sia Lim Soe Keng Sia (1819–1883), also known as Liem Soe King Sia, Soe King Sia or Lim Soukeng Sia, was a prominent '' Pachter'', or revenue farmer, in Batavia, capital of the Dutch East Indies, best known for his rivalry with the notorious Betawi p ...
and Tan Bit Nio.
Tan’s wife was a descendant of two of Java’s most eminent Cabang Atas families as the granddaughter of Lim Ke Tjang, Kapitein der Chinezen of
Tegal
Tegal is a city in the northwest part of Central Java of Indonesia. It is situated on the north coast (or ''pesisir'') of Central Java, about from Semarang, the capital of the province. It had a population of 239,599 at the 2010 Census and 276 ...
in
Central Java
Central Java ( id, Jawa Tengah) is a province of Indonesia, located in the middle of the island of Java. Its administrative capital is Semarang. It is bordered by West Java in the west, the Indian Ocean and the Special Region of Yogyakarta in t ...
, and of
Tan Eng Goan, the 1st Majoor der Chineezen of Batavia.
The couple had two children, Tan Him Nio (1868 – 1949), who married the landowner
Khouw Yauw Kie, Kapitein der Chinezen, and
Tan Liok Tiauw
Tan Liok Tiauw Sia (1872 - 1947) was a prominent Chinese-Indonesian landowner, planter and industrial pioneer in the late colonial period, best known today as the last ''Landheer'' (or landlord) of Batoe-Tjepper, now the district of Batuceper.
...
(1872 – 1947), who succeeded his father as the last Landheer of Batoe-Tjepper.
His granddaughter through his son, Tan Pouw Nio, was married to the colonial politician and community leader
Loa Sek Hie
Loa Sek Hie Sia (born in Batavia in 1898 - died in The Hague in 1965) was a colonial Indonesian politician, parliamentarian and the founding ''Voorzitter'' or chairman of the controversial, ethnic-Chinese self-defense force Pao An Tui (1946 - 19 ...
.
Education and career
Tan received a traditional, classical Chinese education from private tutors; unusually for the time, he also had a European tutor who taught him Dutch and gave him some western education.
As the son and grandson of Chinese officers, he bore the hereditary title ‘
Sia
Sia Kate Isobelle Furler ( ; born 18 December 1975) is an Australian singer and songwriter. Born and raised in Adelaide, she started her career as a singer in the acid jazz band Crisp in the mid-1990s. In 1997, when Crisp disbanded, she rel ...
’.
Probably some years after his father’s acquisition in 1862 of the particuliere land of Batoe-Tjepper in Tangerang, Tan Tiang Po Sia moved there as administrator of the estate.
He is recorded as already holding that post in 1865, and continued to do so after his father’s death in 1867 under the tenure of his widowed mother Tjie Tjan Nio, who inherited the domain from her husband.
As a landlord, Tan was well-regarded by the local community thanks to his extensive philanthropy.
In 1870, he was named by the ''Java-Bode'' newspaper as a significant contributor to the
Red Cross
The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a Humanitarianism, humanitarian movement with approximately 97 million Volunteering, volunteers, members and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ensure re ...
, while in 1874 he founded a school in Batoe-Tjepper to provide a
free education
Free education is education funded through government spending or charitable organizations rather than tuition funding. Many models of free higher education have been proposed. Primary school and other comprehensive or compulsory education is fr ...
for the poorer children of the inhabitants of his domain.
In 1877, Tan was elevated to the
Chinese lieutenancy in Tangerang under the headship of
Lim Tjong Hien, Kapitein der Chinezen of Tangerang.
Together with the whole officer corps of Tangerang in active service, Tan extended his patronage in 1878 to
Boen Tek Bio, the oldest Chinese temple in the region, and helped purchase the shrine’s burial grounds.
Tan served as ''Luitenant'' until 1885, when he requested and was granted an
honourable discharge
A military discharge is given when a member of the armed forces is released from their obligation to serve. Each country's military has different types of discharge. They are generally based on whether the persons completed their training and th ...
.
In 1899, he incorporated a landholding company, ''N. V. Landbouw Tan Tiang Po'', which held the family’s subsidiary domains of
Rawa Boeaja, Tanah Kodja, Pondok Kosambi, Minggoe Djawa and later a significant ''erfpacht'' (leasehold) in
Kapoek.
Most of the latter leasehold had been part of the private domain of Tan’s grandfather-in-law, Majoor Tan Eng Goan.
Tan Tiang Po, oud-Luitenant der Chinezen and Landheer of Batoe-Tjepper died in Batavia in 1912.
The colonial press noted that his remains were brought back by automobile for burial at Batoe-Tjepper.
A significant part of Tan’s landholdings now forms part of Jakarta’s
Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, while the elite suburb of
Pantai Indah Kapuk
Pantai Indah Kapuk (PIK) ( zh, 潘泰因达卡普克) is a gated community, located in parts of Penjaringan, North Jakarta and Kapuk, West Jakarta, Indonesia. It is one of most prestigious residential areas in Jakarta along with Menteng, Pondok ...
occupies part of ''N. V. Landbouw Tan Tiang Po''’s leasehold of Kapoek.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tan, Tiang Po
1846 births
1912 deaths
Kapitan Cina
Indonesian landlords
Cabang Atas
Sia (title)
People from Tangerang
People from Jakarta